Duncan, Jenkins lead way to increase funds for our national parks

EDITORIAL STAFF
THE DAILY TIMES
MARCH 5, 2005

Although the nation's most visited national park covers about a fifth of our county, we often do not realize how many units there are for which the National Park Service is responsible.

With the addition late last year of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado, there are 58 national parks.

However, national parks are only a part of its responsibilities.

The Park Service includes numerous national monuments, national preserves, national parkways, national lakeshores, national reserves, national rivers, national wild and scenic rivers, national recreation areas and national scenic trails to name a few other categories.

So it is easy to see why there is such a crunch for money to support the national parks.

We can see the needs of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and we can also see the benefit of private donations through Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Other parks have similar organizations that help.

The needs are still greater than taxes, admission fees and donations are meeting.

This brings us to the importance of the bill introduced last week by Second District Representative John J. ``Jimmy'' Duncan and First District Representative Bill Jenkins whose districts cover the Smokies Park. Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee also signed on to the bill.

If the bill passes it would permit federal income taxpayers to make a voluntary contribution to the National Park Service using a check-off box on their tax return. It would be effective through 2016, the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.

Our national parks face an annual operational budget shortfall of $600 million annually, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

Visitors want better care of their parks and many are willing to help meet these needs.

The Smokies aren't the only facility in need.

The USS Arizona Memorial visitors center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was designed to accommodate 750,000 when it was built in 1980. Today it's jammed with crowds more than twice that big. It is literally bursting at the seams.

Portions of the shoreside building and plaza commemorating the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that drew American into World War II have settled as much as 30 inches and are still slowly sinking. The concrete structure in cracking.

Perhaps encouraged by Hollywood's attention to the surprise attack which killed 2,390 people, visitation has steadily increased. And the battleship Missouri being anchored nearby is an added attraction.

The Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund is working to raise $34 million to replace the visitors center, the starting point for ferry rides across the harbor to the white memorial that straddles the sunken battleship Arizona, which still contains the remains of 1,177 sailors. With Tom Hanks and Senators John McCain and Daniel Inouye as honorary chairman, the campaign will succeed.

However, there are many smaller and perhaps less attractive parks that also need to be preserved.

The bill introduced this past week contained the same wording of a similar bill Rep. Duncan introduced in a previous Congress allowing taxpayers to easily contribute to our national parks on their tax returns.

Our sincere appreciation to both Rep. Duncan and Rep. Jenkins who have over the years continued their strong support for Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the National Park Service.

Hopefully, this bill will attract the support of the majority of the House and Senate and become law. It is a valid option that can greatly help our parks.